What's your question about?

Plants That Go With Monstera/Bird of Paradise?

I have a roughly triangular 1. 5m x 1. 5m corner garden bed that is mostly in shade, but which does get direct sunlight for a few hours. It currently has two established Monstera on the fence at the back (lowest leaves about 1m off ground), and two young dwarf bird of paradise plants lining the fence along the side (30cm high at the moment).
My problem is that there is a large space in the middle for a mass planting of something, but I'm struggling to find the right plant. As my husband does not really like plants with strappy foliage, we are looking for another broader, dense, lush green type of foliage, but one which can cope with lots of shade and also some direct sunlight.
It's probably no surprise that I am struggling to find any plants that fit this description.
But please, could you suggest any possible plants that might work in our garden gap?

Check here if you would like to receive notifications every time this question is answered.

You are subscribed to receive notifications whenever this question is answered.

ANSWERS

HeatherCertified GKH Gardening Expert

Answered on April 10, 2011

You may want to look at taros, caladiums and elephant ears. They should fit what you are looking for.

Was this answer useful?

00

kristen_vp

Answered on April 12, 2011

Thanks Heather, they are all great suggestions.

I did consider elephant ears already but they are a bit bigger than what we are looking for. I researched Caladiums and they would need brighter shade than what we have...our area is in pretty deep shade for most of the day because the corner is fenced in.

Taros is an exciting option as it is a food crop, too. The leaves are a bit big and I was looking for an ornamental perennial sort of plant but as we can harvest it this will make my veggie gardening husband pretty happy :-)